State broadcaster China Central Television on Sunday dropped its planned live coverage of a soccer match between English teams Arsenal and Manchester City due to the political comments made by one of Arsenal’s players.

Mesut Ozil, a German midfield player of Turkish origin, used social media to criticize China’s practises in Xinjiang province, which has a majority Muslim population of Uighur-Turkic origin. Western media have criticized China for use of detention camps to hold over one million Uighurs. China has denied that these are prison camps, describing them instead as vocational training establishments and part of its efforts to fight separatism and terrorism.

Using Instagram and Twitter, Ozil called the detained Uighurs “warriors who resist persecution.” He also criticized the Chinese government, and the governments of Muslim nations who have done little to address the issue.

Arsenal, a club based in North London, quickly attempted to distance itself from the often controversial player’s comments, and to minimize damage to its reputation in China. It used Chinese social media platform Weibo, on which it has 5 million followers, to say: “The content published is all Ozil’s personal opinion. Arsenal, as a football club, has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.”

That tactic was quickly shown to have failed. The Chinese state-owned tabloid newspaper The Global Times said that Ozil’s comments were “false,” “unacceptable” and had “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”.

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On Sunday, CCTV dropped its coverage of the match, replacing it instead with a pre-recorded game between English teams Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

On one hand, both Belgium and England get to compete without the pressure of their entire nations’ hopes for soccer history on their backs, and Harry Kane and the rest of the Three Lions are probably relieved to be able to play a game without “It’s coming home” ringing in their ears. It’s a battle for third place tomorrow as Kane comes back from a minor injury to see if he can lead England to its best World Cup tournament position in decades against a hardy Belgian team.

The game starts at 7 a.m. PT on July 14 in St. Petersburg Stadium, and will be broadcast on FOX. The match can be streamed on FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports Go apps. Telemundo’s coverage will also be available for streaming via the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo apps (for iOS and Android) and Telemundo stations’ apps.